Caught between a croc and a hard place.

Yesterday, I was watching the show “Animals Gone Wild” on Nat Geo. The show is about animals and their instincts which helps them survive in the wild.

9-10 dangerous hungry wild dogs were chasing a warthog. They cornered it at once and were ready to attack it. The situation was unexpected for the warthog. Few yards away, there was a pond. Perhaps the warthog thought it was a safe place to be in the water. The water looked safe without any movement. Dogs were more smart to sense the danger in the water. Somehow the warthog escaped and ran toward the pond. It jumped in the water. Dogs gathered around the water and started barking. An older dog was trying to attack it safely to pull him but could not succeed. Finally, they realised that they could not do much. They were tired. Warthog also now relaxed just standing in the water. Facing what he thinks are his only predators, he slowly sips the water as the pack of nine dogs patiently waits for him to finish, thinking he's safe if he remains in position, the hog takes his time.

But little does it know that a gigantic crocodile is creeping up in the water behind him, which then leaps out and drags him back into the water for the kill. This happened within a fraction of a second.

Sometimes animals sense the danger but sometimes not. Sometimes coming out alive is not always possible. Predators may not take any chance. There is always a life and death situation. Most of the time the animal senses it is a safe place, but predators may come from anywhere. To save itself an animal may find a place, which is safe, but the perceived ‘safe place’ might be more dangerous.

Our life is also like this. In any case there is a threat. Life is afterall taking risks and fighting with every odd and hurdle which comes along during the journey.  There is a dangerous situation and there is a more dangerous situation. We don’t have the option to choose but as an instinct, we chose a less dangerous situation. We don’t think of different options. We choose the option which we perceive to be safe like the warthog. But we don’t know if the predator may attack from any side. When we think we are safe, actually we are not.

In businesses, most of the time, corporates spend their time fighting with the competition. Few go ahead further by announcing to kill the competition and focus their full energy towards the competition. However sometimes the threat is from within and not from the competition. We need to look at what is within and understand what are those dangerous situations and elements behind us; e.g. our cost, our qualities, capabilities, dysfunctional organizations, lack of change, not being relevant in the market etc, etc. Those elements are more dangerous like that crocodile.       

We need to be ready to face the predator from all sides and make a plan to save ourselves.

Please watch the Nat Gio video on Youtube

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 

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Coping with the anxiety due to Covid19

Covid19 situation is very bad in India. The second wave is more dangerous but more dangerous are that news about unavailability of beds, oxygen supply, medicine, and vaccines. The invisible virus has spoiled the fun in our lives. Every family is affected by the virus. People lost their beloved ones. We still don’t have the solutions to handle the situation. People are scared and are worried about their families.

This is bringing anxiety, panic attacks. Few deaths are not because of the infection but because of the panic attacks. The negative information is flowing like a fire on social media. Because of the illogical and irrational thoughts anxieties are magnified. Most of the people are so sure that something bad will happen to them and their families. In nuclear families, this fear is prominent. The fear of losing something is creating panic and people are becoming anxious.          

We need to understand that we can’t change this situation, but we can help to improve the situation by taking enough care and following the guidelines given by the health ministry from time to time. At least this time we have the vaccine to fight with the virus and eventually it will be available for everybody as the government is scaling up the production of different vaccines. We need to fight with the covid but along with it we need to fight with our anxiety.

Our thoughts have the power to change how we feel. If you think something sad would happen, it’s likely you’ll start to feel sad about the situation. The beauty of the mind and thought is you feel what you think. Yes, when you think of something positive and calming, you feel relaxed. 

If you want to be relaxed and free from anxiety then, 

Challenge irrational thoughts: To overcome the anxiety, start challenging your thoughts, which you will realise, are irrational. You can do it by examining the evidence and challenging those thoughts, you can reduce anxiety. Stop watching negative news, reading forwards on social media and start investing your time in value added activities. When you encounter any negative thoughts about Covid, put thoughts on trial. Choose a thought that has contributed to your anxiety. Gather evidence in support of your thought (verifiable facts only), and against your thought. Compare the evidence and determine whether your thought is accurate or not. Most of the time, you will realise that the negative news, and forwards are politically motivated, faked, or with distorted facts. Sometimes those are based on the narratives created to frame you by the so called political analysts, urban naxals, corrupt journalists and agents of political parties.

When you are anxious and in a panic mode, please question the thoughts that contribute to your anxiety. Ask yourself, below questions and affirmations as explained in brackets. 

“Is my thought based on facts or feelings? Are the news I am reading are opinions of somebody or based on the factual data?

(Most of the time, the news will be based on opinions and not the facts. There are different narratives which I should not think about much.)   

“How would my best friend, beloved one see this situation? What precautions I should take”

“How likely is it that my fear will come true?” Do I have any solution to handle this? Like if Covid is infected, what support do I need?

(However, after the research you will find that the recovery rate is almost 90%-95% and those who are suffering are those who ignored early symptoms, you will also find that people died because of the secondary infection or panic attack.)

“What’s most likely to happen?” If I am following all safety protocols, why do I need to worry?

(But in case if it happens, I am sure I will recover. And now most of the cases are home quarantine, it means those are not that serious. Check around you, in your colony and you will find that almost all people are recovered from the infection.)

“If my fear comes true, will it still matter in a week? A month? A year?”   

(I am taking all precautions; I am safe and yes vaccination is already there. The situation is just a matter of time. Everything will be fine. In both cases I will gain something. If infected, antibodies and experience, however, I don’t want to be infected, hence I should take all precautions and enroll for the vaccine if it is available for all.)

Create your own narrative for you and get free from the anxiety. You will be happy.

Be safe, be happy!

Author's book are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga 

Vitality in Human Resource is now available in paperback edition. Please click here to buy

Buy Industrial Relations Strategy Framework For Every Manager on amazon. Click IR Strategy Framework.

Accident, crisis, and communication

I have a habit of walking around the workplace at least once in a day. There are two reasons, one, you meet people, greet them, and get connected and the second reason is, you come to know what’s happening on the ground. Sometimes people share a lot of things while moving around. 

While working at factories, I used to walk around before resuming the work. Daily, I used to go to the shop floor, meet and greet workmen and supervisors working there. I used to question and challenge them if I observed some issues on the shop floor. During such rounds, workmen used to be attentive, at least they used to show that they are doing something. During one of the meetings, one of the senior managers who was an expat, gave this example to other managers. He was on the assignment on the improvement & productivity projects.

“I have seen, nobody bothers even when other managers and even the production head is on the shop floor. Workmen still continue to waste their time. But when Mr. Bidwaik is there everybody becomes more active because he challenges them. Workmen have taken granted for other managers.” He mentioned. I was involved in the change management, culture building process and productivity improvement project. The workmen, staff and managers were in their old world. Resistance was always high, not even from workmen but from white collar employees also. Being in HR, it was a totally different experience for me. The big challenge was on behavioural based safety. People used to take the shortcuts, not that much serious about wearing PPEs.    

It was a winter; the outside climate was amazing. I completed the round, it was a good walk, almost 4 km in the compass and shop floor. I went into my office, while I was unlocking my laptop, my intercom ranged. The production supervisor of one of the sections was on the line, “Hello Sir, please come on the shop floor immediately, one of the workmen had an accident.” He told me. I disconnected and rushed towards the incident. I saw a big crowd. The workman was under the roll of conveyor belt which had the weight of almost 600 kg. He was using the crane to move the newly manufactured roll of the belt at another location. The pulley tilted and the whole roll came out and fell on him. He was screaming. It was my first time to see such a horrible accident. Meanwhile an ambulance came. We took him to the hospital. His spine and vertebrae were damaged. His condition was critical. His family was communicated. 

I was shocked to see his condition. I updated this to the CEO, government authorities and senior management. It was decided to admit him in a specialty hospital in Mumbai. I was with him almost daily to support him and his family. During this process, I had to accompany senior leadership to speak with authorities. Dealing with locals, family members and unions naturally came to me. He was operated on 3 times and it took almost one year for him to recover from this accident, however he could not do the activities which he used to do earlier. We decided to transfer him to the back office. 

This incident was a lesson to all, company, managers, and workmen. They took safety seriously after that, but somebody had sacrificed to realize the same. Today whenever I see any unsafe behaviour, I interrupt the person and take his class. 

Safety is one thing, but I also learnt one of the elements of leadership. Leadership is about role modelling and reinforcing the right behaviour. This is one of the weaknesses of those managers and supervisors. Nowadays, MNC organizations have a strong safety policy and promote strong safety behaviours.

For me that accident was the test of my leadership skills, while dealing with that workman, family, relatives and of course union office bearers. It was a roller-coaster of all types of emotions. 

"It is true that turbulent times build great leadership skills."

In 2015, After almost 14 years of that incident, I attended the programme on communication during the crisis, conducted by one of the ex-BBC reporters. The learnings were as under,

• Gather the facts, don’t try to cover up,
• Tell the truth and be open,
• Communicate the action plan,
• Say, your priority is to take care of the people,
• Speak about how the investigation is going on, communicate only facts,
• Offer all support to government, police, and regulatory bodies,
• While doing this, use appropriate words, very clear communication and don’t use the words like I think, I assume etc. Hence preparation is the key.

In the above incident, our managers and I had to face local authorities, police, local citizens, and families. I was not trained to handle this, but when I look back and recollect that incident, I must say that I learnt a lot and that is unimaginable.

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